Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2021 December 15

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

December 15

Nuclear Gandhi in Civilization games Question

Just read the fascinating Nuclear Gandhi article, and it convincingly lays out that an integer overflow error could not have caused the Dr. Strangegandhi phenomenon. Is the phenomenon real at all? I played early versions of the Civilization games in the 1990s, and had the perception that Gandhi was unusually aggressive, but it's possible that was just confirmation bias (you really notice incongruous things like Gandhi threatening you with nukes) - is there any evidence on whether the phenomenon is real or not? Wevets (talk) 13:53, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

WP:OR warning: I've been playing the series addictively since I started playing Civ II in the mid-1990s. The purported "glitch" was probably known as early as the early 2000s/Civ III era, though I can neither confirm nor deny that it existed, just that it was supposed to exist, and I absolutely knew about it before it was deliberately coded into the game in Civ V. --Jayron32 15:19, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

It would be feasible to decompile civ.exe and take a look: if, as claimed, aggression levels are stored in signed bytes, then it's definitely a myth. CivFanatics forum user darkpanda has done this to answer another question.  Card Zero  (talk) 16:36, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

That's not quite what I was asking - the article linked is pretty convincing that it isn't an overflow error as the urban legend would have it. What I'm wondering is if Gandhi is actually more aggressive anyway, possibly for a different reason than whatever the aggression settings were; could a different bug have caused the same effect? Or is it all in the players' minds? Wevets (talk) 02:47, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

Be careful. If you say his name five times in front of a mirror monitor, the Gandhiman will come for you. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:38, 17 December 2021 (UTC)